“What’s the matter, Che?” Tino said as he puttered around the kitchen. His brother Cesare sat at the kitchen table, looking even grumpier than he normally did, if that was possible, as he drank his coffee.

“Hunh?”

Tino took the plates out of the cabinet, set them on the table, and turned to face his brother. “What?” Tino’s brows knit together in a puzzled frown.

“Sophia and I broke up.”

“You can’t break up! It’s Christmas!” Tino cried.

Cesare rolled his eyes. “Christmas is next week, you idiot! And we did! So what?” he huffed.

“But, Che…”

“But nothing! I’m rid of the bitch, so what?!”

“But you two loved each other!” Tino insisted. He brought the plates over to the table along with a couple of forks. He sat and reached for the cake that sat on the table. Tino cut them each a slice, sliding one towards his brother.

“What’s this shit?” Cesare was hurting as he did love Sophia, but he also had feelings for Amber’s brother, James. Somehow, his now ex-girlfriend had found out about his past relationship with James and the feelings he still had for him, and it sparked it a huge fight that ended with them going their separate ways. So he did what he always did whenever he was upset, he bitched at his younger brother.

“Fruit cake. Didi made it.” Tino beamed at him. As far as he was concerned his husband was the best baker in the world. His smile turned a bit smug, when Tino remembered that Didi only baked for the family and more importantly, just for Tino himself.

Cesare’s frown deepened. He made a little sound of disgust, before trying some. It was delicious as usual, but with the way he was feeling, there was no way Cesare was going to let his brother know that. He made a face, and grabbing his coffee mug, he drank.

“You know if you keep eating sweets like that, you’re gonna get fat!” Cesare said, in an attempt at changing the subject.

Tino shrugged. “It’ll take a lot more than a slice of fruit cake, Che. Now what happened?”

“We had a stupid fight and I don’t want to talk about it.” Cesare angrily shoveled the rest of his cake in.

“I thought you didn’t like it,” Tino teased. His expression grew serious. “If you don’t want to talk about it…” Tino shrugged. He let the matter drop, knowing Cesare would eventually tell him what he wanted to know anyway.

“I don’t.” Cesare helped himself to another slice. By the time the brothers had finished eating the whole cake; Tino had gotten the whole story out of him. Cesare sighed. “You’re good.”

His brother laughed. “I know! So what are you going to do?”

“Dunno… I’ll go to the party, keep it as low key as possible, and see what happens.” At the look in his brother’s eye, he added, “Don’t you dare say anything!”

Tino smiled. “I won’t…” he said, leaving it at that. He would of course tell Didi when he got home from work. How else was he going to explain the “missing” fruit cake?